Mining environments, particularly open pit surface mining environments, present unique challenges to maintaining safe and efficient operation of vehicles. The workhorse of a modern surface mine is a mine haul truck, which is a dump truck capable of hauling hundreds of tons of material. Haul trucks are among the largest land vehicles ever built, and, as such, are characterized by limited maneuverability, relatively slow acceleration and deceleration, poor sight lines on each side of the vehicle, and relatively low fuel efficiency. Other vehicles, such as shovels, bulldozers, and bucket wheel excavators are similarly difficult to control. The vehicles are large, with wide turning radii, and slow braking and accelerating capabilities.
At any one time, a large number of vehicles may be working within a particular mine. During operation, each vehicle will move to different locations within the mine to retrieve material, dump material, or to assist in various operations. While navigating between different locations, each vehicle will travel along a particular route following one or more of the roadways or designated throughways of the mine. In some cases, a centralized control or dispatch system is arranged to assign each vehicle to a particular route and to a particular task.
The tires of wheeled vehicles are an important component to mining operations and are an important element in determining safety and health conditions in a mine. Tires can also be expensive and scarce. At the same time, mining is a capital intensive and operationally costly enterprise. It therefore can be essential that mining operations be planned and executed so that equipment utilization levels are high and production objectives are achieved. A key element to this is a system arranged to operate and dispatch vehicles in a manner so that desired production levels are maintained and tire conditioning is optimized.
Increased equipment utilization and decreased tire-related costs are benefits from tire conditioning optimization. Another benefit is the reduction of associated costs such as fuel costs. Mine safety improvement is another benefit.